I'm sorry to ask this again, but I haven't seen any straight answers to this.

I'd like to include Plan 9 as a download on my website (it specialises in mobile phones and I convert copyright-free video files to a form viewable on phones).

However, I don't want to include anything that is illegal to download.

The Plan 9 page on Archive.org seems to imply that the film is out of copyright by having a creative commons logo, but the print available for download has a clear copyright notice and was made less than 85 years ago.

I know there's a loophole about prints which were released without a copyright message before 1978, but this clearly isn't one of them.

I'm not sure why Plan 9 could possibly be out of copyright when much older films (for example Disney's first cartoons) are still in copyright.

Can someone explain, and perhaps add this explanation to the movies section of the FAQ?

Re: Copyright status of Plan 9 and other films with copyright messages

It used to be the case that works needed to be registered and renewed in order to receive copyright protection. Most of the works in the feature film section were not renewed or did not follow some other technicality of the previous copyright law.

Re: Copyright status of Plan 9 and other films with copyright messages

Great, thanks for that reply, exactly what I wanted to know :)

So, if I understand this right, Plan 9 falls into the following category then?

"Works originally copyrighted between January 1, 1950, and December 31, 1963:"

"Copyrights in their first 28-year term on January 1, 1978, still had to be renewed in order to be protected for the second term. If a valid renewal registration was made at the proper time, the second term will last for 67 years. However, if renewal registration for these works was not made within the statutory time limits, a copyright originally secured between 1950 and 1963 expired on December 31st of its 28th year, and protection was lost permanently."